A Good Master
by FenrirMoridin
Summary: This is another fanfiction based on MechaGM's Shadowland campaign that takes place after session 20. Sometimes lifting a creature up and slamming it down isn't as fatal as you might be led to believe...


Fluffy the owlbear woke from a world of numbing darkness to one of agonizing light. Its body shrieked with pain with every small movement, every twitch a voice of torture joining in a chorus of agony. It could barely see through its eyes, which could barely open under the weight of dried blood from a large gash across the top of its head. Fluffy tried to get up, but before it could even get up past its knees it collapsed under the stress of its own weight, small rivulets of blood running from half-healed wounds. Giving up on moving for the moment, Fluffy craned its head around to look at the surrounding battlefield. The small clearing in the Fae Wilds stank with death, oppressive waves of the stench rolling off of the corpses of the Fomorian goblins. Fluffy ignored the corpses of the goblins which had often tormented it in life, looking for the sole savior that would protect the owlbear from the vicious goblins. When Fluffy's lidded gaze reached its master it let out a low keen of despair, the figure of the Ettin Wrath Chanter clearly prone from death. The keen rose in pitch as Fluffy strained at its muscles, eventually forcing itself to its feet even as barely healed wounds reopened further in protest. Every step was an eternity of torment, a rush of pain telling the beast to just lie down and die, but Fluffy struggled to reach the side of the master it had known for its entire life. After a few seconds the owlbear finally reached its destination and collapsed next to the master it had known for its entire existence, content to be with him in death as it had been in life. As Fluffy gently nuzzled its beak into its dead master, its consciousness finally fled to the bliss of darkness, although true oblivion was staved off by an oddly comforting green light.

* * *

Belsinna Aeraren walked through the shelves of her little apothecary, making sure that every herb was in the proper place for maximum display. Everything was also lined up with its proper label, a precaution that was often needless in the little druidic conclave but one Belsinna made sure to take anyways. The apothecary was there mostly for emergencies anyways, as every adult member of their community was perfectly capable of locating any of the herbs in the shop. Belsinna probably would regret working in the shop if it didn't make for an excellent teaching tool in the education of her young daughter, Beriessa. Belsinna sighed a little when her mind turned to her hyperactive daughter, who was more often than not simply referred to as "Beri" since that was about as far as anyone could get before she was someplace else. Belsinna had hoped that the young eladrin would calm down as her druidic studies progressed, but any chance the studies had were completely eroded by the upcoming prospect of the girl's first animal bonding. Not that Belsinna could actually blame her: none of the community had been calm during the selection of their first animal partner, the first of several major milestones in the druidic discipline their conclave practiced.

The older elf slowly lost herself in her memories of her first bonding and the many years of life she had spent as a pair with Yovera, her fey panther. Eventually her happy reminiscing turned bittersweet as she reached Yovera's passing, the eventual loss that eladrin druids accepted as a downside to their significant longevity outstripping most creatures of the Fey Wilds. It was on this conflicted note that she was broken out of her reverie by the sound of her third companion, the unicorn Mirellia, neighing at a familiar figure's approach. Belsinna barely had a chance to look up before she felt a very familiar small figure collide into her midriff. Belsinna opened her mouth to gently chide her daughter for her impetuous ways, but quickly closed her jaws when she noticed the tears streaming down her daughter's face. Belsinna stroked Beri's hair for a few seconds, waiting for her daughter's bereaved sobs to die down enough for her to answer some questions. Eventually her daughter quieted down enough that Belsinna felt confident she could get an answer from the distraught young eladrin. "What's wrong Beri?" Belsinna gently asked, making sure her tone was as soft as possible.

"He's hurt, Mama! Some nasty people must have hurt him when they were killing goblins!" Belsinna struggled to make out what her daughter could be talking about, wondering who this person was that Beri was referring to and why the young druid would differentiate between him and the "dead goblins". She held her daughter's hands to comfort the young girl until she could continue; Belsinna fought back her own distress when she realized that there was quite a bit of blood smeared over her daughter's palms. After a few seconds her daughter managed to catch her breath and continue: "He's dying, Mama! You have to help him, now! Please!" her daughter's tone grew frantic towards the end, her little hands desperately tugging at Belsinna's in an effort to move her towards the door. Belsinna considered stopping her daughter and leaving this mysterious "him" to die, but eventually decided that her daughter's distress was great enough that she should at least take a look at the grisly scene her daughter had discovered.

After gently disengaging her daughter's hands from her own Belsinna put her finger across Beri's lips before she could protest. "Don't worry, darling, I'll take a look at him. Just wait outside next to Mirellia while I gather my herbs." Belsinna almost felt her heart break as relief flooded across her young daughter's face, the young fae clearly confident that her mother could deal with any situation. She waited the couple of seconds it took for Beri to rush out the door and wait outside, the young eladrin's fidgeting noticeable enough that she could hear the swishing of clothes even through the door. Belsinna quickly crossed the room and reached one of several large satchels that hung off the wall, each one containing several complete sets of herbs that could heal all but the worst wounds. She threw it over head, the soft leather strap comfortably finding its place in the crook of the right side of her collar bone. She began to rush toward the door before a realization stopper her in her tracks. It took only a moment for Belsinna to switch the leather satchel to the other side of her body, leaving her left hip clear for the small wooden wand she belted there after retrieving it from behind the counter. Her daughter was usually smart enough to notice obvious danger, but Belsinna couldn't let anything risk her daughter's life.

Belsinna pulled on Mirellia's mane to slow her down, the unicorn eventually coming to a stop right in front of a scene of grisly carnage. As soon as the small clearing came into sight she understood what her daughter was talking about. The Fomorian goblins and ettin were among the fouler denizens of the Fae Wilds, so her daughter's sympathy could only lie with one figure, the immense owlbear slumped in the middle of the clearing next to the ettin. She felt her daughter's arms tighten further around her body, the scent of death doing little to alleviate her daughter's distress. She nimbly dismounted from the unicorn's back before turning around and gently letting her daughter down. She patted her daughter and gestured that she should stay back with Mirellia while the older druid investigated the figure of the owlbear.

Belsinna approached the collapsed owlbear, delicately stepping around the scattered corpses of the goblins. She could barely believe the owlbear was even still alive, its body covered in dried blood from a horrific assortment of large wounds. She couldn't even make out breathing until she was within a few feet of the wounded beast, the rise and fall of its chest barely perceptible against the unmoving mass of the dead ettin beside it. It took only a quick scan for her to realize the truth of the owlbear's condition: the sum of its wounds was beyond the druid's capability. Any healing Belsinna could perform would tax the owlbear's body past its tenuous grasp on life. Belsinna turned away and walked back towards her daughter, the hope draining from Beri's face as she realized her mother hadn't performed any form of healing. Her daughter opened her mouth but Belsinna cut her off, deciding it was time for one of the harsher lessons of the druidic discipline.

"Beri, sometimes an animal's time has come, even if it's not when nature intended. The owlbear's wounds are too great: at this point, healing it would just cause too much stress for its body to handle and would just hasten its death. It's just too far gone for any natural healing to work. I'm sorry, Beri," Belsinna said, gently stroking her daughter's hair. "Come on, we should leave it to nature's embrace now," Belsinna said as she gently tugged at her daughter's arm, pulling her towards Mirellia. Beri stumbled forward a couple steps, then dug her feet into the ground and pulled back against her mother's hands. Belsinna looked at her daughter, the young eladrin's face a mixture of frustration and sadness.

"Mama, he just hurts so much! You have to save him! You just have to!" Beri's voice continued to rise in pitch, the desperation in her voice increasingly more strident. Belsinna felt her heart sink, but deep down she knew there was nothing she could do. She wasn't even sure why her daughter cared so much: the young eladrin was versed enough in the druidic arts to have encountered death and to have accepted it as an inevitable part of the natural world. The last time Belsinna had seen her daughter in such a state was when she had broken her arm falling from a tree after a sudden storm whipped up. When Belsinna remembered that moment she felt a chill grip her heart. 'She couldn't have…' Belsinna thought as she bent down towards her daughter, brusquely grabbing her chin and turning her face to look into her eyes. "Oh, you stupid girl," Belsinna muttered to herself as her worst fears were confirmed: her daughter's eyes were filled with despair but also a shadow of physical pain, even though there was no noticeable damage to her body. Belsinna pressed her forehead to her daughter's, letting her natural awareness open up. It took only a moment for her to feel the nascent bond between her daughter and the owlbear, the connection firm even though one of the partners was dying.

Belsinna almost pushed her daughter away in her desperation to reach the owlbear, her hands grasping furiously at the latch to the satchel. She remembered the pain of losing her first two bondmates, the feeling of loss practically incapacitating her for weeks, and that was after she had years to prepare for their deaths. She couldn't let that happen to her daughter: such a loss would leave the young girl eternally scarred if she was lucky, and if she wasn't…insanity would be the least of it. Belsinna took out all the herbs in the satchel, divvying up which ones would go to the worst wounds. She didn't have enough to properly treat the owlbear, but she couldn't afford to leave the severely wounded animal's side, and Beri had to stay there to prevent any strain on the link. As Belsinna began to work, applying some herbs directly while putting others in a mortar and pestle for later, she reached out to Mirellia through their link. The unicorn cocked its head as Belsinna communicated her need to it, then turned around and began galloping toward the apothecary to get another satchel. Belsinna then lost herself in the healing, her focus so intent that she didn't even notice when Beri came up next to her and put her hands on her mother's back in support. She only looked away from her work when Mirellia returned for the time it took to grab the satchel off of the unicorn's horn and replace the herbs she already had.

* * *

It took several hours for Belsinna to finish her ministrations, leaving the owlbear looking more like a large bush than an actual animal. As she wiped the sweat from her brow she finally felt her daughter leaning against her back. Beri was sleeping against her mother's back; the young girl had probably collapsed sometime during the healing, her body taxed from the experience of her first bonding followed by running all the way back to the apothecary. Belsinna couldn't help but smile at her feisty young daughter. Beri must have guessed her way around the intricacies of the spell that formed the link, relying on sheer intuition to figure out the parts she hadn't been taught yet. Furthermore, the act of bonding was exhausting: it took a significant amount of energy to link two separate life forces, especially when one had to be on death's threshold. Belsinna lifted her daughter's head up then seated herself so that she could gently rest Beri's head in her lap. It would be safer for her to keep the young eladrin close to the owlbear until she knew whether or not the creature would survive the healing. She sat there stroking her daughter's hair until Beri's eyes twitched open.

"Mama, why did they hurt him?" the young fae asked, her tone inquisitive but slightly pained. Belsinna wasn't quite sure how to answer, although she suspected that the owlbear had been hurt by travelers accosted by a Fomorian scouting party. Owlbears were prized creatures for such parties, their ferocious strength good for breaking up enemy parties or providing enough of a diversion for the goblins to get away.

"Well, dearest one, owlbears are often used as shock troops by Fomorian goblins, so it-he was probably attacked by enemies of the loathsome goblins. They were likely just protecting themse-"

"No, Mama, I mean before that," Beri interrupted, nudging her head against Belsinna's torso. "His body has a lot of scars. I think he's been hurt all throughout his life." Belsinna looked down at her little daughter, wondering if she should answer that. She had fought Fomorian scouting parties before, and she had noticed the path of crushed grass leading from the owlbear away from the ettin's corpse. It was likely that the ettin was a wrath chanter that was tasked with keeping the owlbear, which probably considered the dead ettin its beloved master. The sad truth is, though, that ettins are notoriously vicious, with both heads often encouraging each other to greater acts of cruelty. Belsinna didn't want to tell her daughter that the owlbear loved a master that likely pretended to be its savior after letting the goblins mercilessly beat it.

"Little one, know this," Belsinna said gently, stroking Beri's hair: "as cruel as nature can be, we fae are capable of much worse. That is why we strive to work with nature at the conclave: to be better creatures and ensure that such cruelty never finds a foothold in the small part of the world we look over." Belsinna reached down and lifted Ber's head softly, turning it so her daughter faced the figure of the owlbear. "For better or worse, when you linked with that animal you made that same promise to him. You will be his bulwark against the cruelties of others, as he will provide you with strength far beyond what you alone can muster." As Belsinna finished she felt the words resonate within her own soul, and as she held her daughter close she felt Miriella walk up and standby, her very presence of immeasurable comfort to the eladrin. The words were the ritual ending of the bonding ceremony and carried a power all their own, one born in the truth of what their bond represented and not its magical nature.

"Mama, he's up," Beri whispered, and Belsinna turned up to look right into the eyes of the owlbear she had saved for the sake of her daughter. She saw the pain in the owlbear's eyes, its confusion at still being alive and the eladrin it saw before it. It got up slowly, the various poultices and herbs she had put on it expanding over its muscles. Belsinna felt her body tense up as it approached, and she couldn't help but tighten her arms around Beri a bit more. Beri was unnaturally still in her arms, and Belsinna looked down to see her daughter staring raptly at the impressive creature. After a few torturous seconds the owlbear finally reached the eladrin and stood there, staring at the pair for a minute or two. Eventually the owlbear shifted forward slightly and moved its head toward Beri. Belsinna would have torn her daughter away, except Beri very firmly put her hands on her mother's arms and pushed them down. Belsinna watched her daughter reach up toward the massive owlbear, which gently reached down and begun to nuzzle her daughter as she stroked its feathers.

"Hello, Melui," Beri said softly, and the owlbear knew the name it would answer to for the rest of its very long life.


End file.
